Patriot Prayer leader’s ‘crazy day’ in SF

It was a “crazy day” for Joey Gibson — one that ended up with the Patriot Prayer leader appearing in the Presidio, where he had once scheduled a rally for the right-wing group.

Gibson called off that event the day before it was to have been held Saturday, saying he would hold a “press conference” in Alamo Square Park instead. When police closed the park, Gibson hit the road, first to an online chat with friends, then to a news conference in Pacifica and from there to Crissy Field.

There, he joined about 50 would-be rally participants, some of whom said they had come from Oregon and Washington to attend the aborted event.

They did not march, but mostly stood under the shade of a large tree in the middle of the field. The demonstrators said they have been mislabeled as white supremacists and that they were standing up for free speech.

“It seems like if you’re conservative in California, you’re deemed as a racist,” said Patrick Porcuna, a 28-year-old San Francisco resident, who identifies as libertarian and said he had voted for President Trump. “I’m down for people to talk and have free speech.”

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Around 100 protesters were also there to greet Gibson. Park police showed up as well, with shields and batons, but there was no violence.

“I’m having to go from spot to spot because antifa really wants to come after me,” Gibson said, referring to militant leftists who have confronted right-wing demonstrators at some rallies.

After leaving Crissy Field, Gibson added City Hall to his itinerary, showing up shortly after a large counterprotest ended.

Gibson complained that the city had made it all but impossible for him to put on an event in public.

“Today has been a crazy day,” he said on a Facebook Live broadcast. “Everywhere we go, the police, the city, they want to shut it down.”

The Patriot Prayer leader said officials such as Mayor Ed Lee and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco had focused on the safety threat his group supposedly caused while ignoring the danger from counterprotesters.

Officials countered that it was Gibson who had threatened public safety by pulling a last-minute location switch, to a spot where he had no permit for a rally.

White supremacists have been known to attend the group’s rallies in Portland, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. Gibson, a Pacific Northwest resident who identifies as Japanese American, has recently denounced white supremacists and said he is working to exclude them from his gatherings.

“There were no visible signs of white nationalist members” at a Patriot Prayer rally this month in Seattle, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.